Volume 3, Chapter 277 – The Innate Supreme Sword Dao Sacred Body

“Chi Xiaoyan, water-wood dual spirit roots, common grade lower tier. Spirit root unqualified!”

Before the stone platform stood a young boy, his face pale with shock as he stumbled back several steps.

“How is that possible? Isn’t there some mistake!” he cried, his voice cracking.

The moment his words fell, an uproar swept through the crowded plaza, exactly as one would expect.

“Chi Xiaoyan’s spirit root is actually common grade lower tier?”

“His father, Chi Dading, is a Fifth Realm expert, isn’t he?”

“How could a Fifth Realm expert have a son with a common grade lower tier spirit root?”

“Ha! My dad kept telling me how exceptional our neighbor Chi Xiaoyan was and that I should learn from him. Looking at this now, learn what? Learn how to never break past the Third Realm his entire life?”

“A tiger father with a dog for a son. Chi Xiaoyan’s days ahead are going to be rough.”

The sneers, mockery, and pitying sighs from those around him fell on the boy’s ears like stakes being driven into his chest one by one, leaving him standing frozen in place, his breathing growing slightly ragged.

The elder overseeing the test let a trace of helpless resignation cross his eyes. He had witnessed far too many scenes like this.

He gave a faint shake of his head and called out coldly, “Next. Chi Xiaomei.”

Lu Zhuxin’s eye twitched.

The scene unfolding before her was so utterly textbook that she almost couldn’t breathe.

Had she wandered onto the wrong set?

‘Host, everything in this small world was generated by the Heavenly Dao based on your own understanding. According to the system’s analysis, these elements appear here because, in your mind, this is exactly the kind of place where this kind of scene should occur.’

Lu Zhuxin griped at the system internally, ‘I feel like in a scene like this, a portal should appear and I could walk right through it back to reality!’

‘Incorrect. In the host’s understanding, no such scene has ever existed.’

“ Tsk . So inflexible.” Lu Zhuxin cursed under her breath.

Just then, Chi Xiyan tugged at her arm. “Little Xue’er, let me take you up.”

Hiss …

You’re serious, Sister!

Lu Zhuxin felt a dull ache behind her forehead.

It wasn’t entirely because the situation was humiliating. It was because she wasn’t human.

She had no idea what result would come up if an Eighth Realm fox demon like herself stepped onto that testing platform.

“What’s wrong?” Chi Xiyan noticed her hesitation and let out a light laugh. “Weren’t you excited just a moment ago? Why are you getting cold feet now that we’re actually here?”

“I’m not,” Lu Zhuxin said.

Even as she spoke, her mind was turning it over:

Maybe I don’t need to be so nervous. According to the novel’s settings, after a demon takes human form, their basic constitution is not much different from a human’s.

Chi Xiyan has examined me and Bu Lianshuang so many times without noticing anything strange, so that rule must hold.

The bigger question, then, is what kind of spirit root would show up when an Eighth Realm fox demon is tested.

But Eighth Realm cultivation is more than enough to block the perception of lower-realm cultivators. Blocking a spirit root test should be no great feat either.

With that thought settling her nerves somewhat, Lu Zhuxin followed Chi Xiyan into the crowd.

“It’s the eldest young lady! The eldest young lady is here!”

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The young boys and girls noticed Chi Xiyan’s arrival.

A stir ran through the crowd, and they parted to make way for her.

Chi Xiyan held considerable prestige among the Chi family disciples, and that was the result of years of careful cultivation on her part.

“Who is the person behind the eldest young lady? I’ve never seen her before.”

“I think that’s the second young lady. The second young lady who was brought back to the Chi family just a couple of days ago!”

“Ah! The one who wandered outside for over a decade?”

“What is she here for today? Don’t tell me she’s here to test her spirit root?”

“She’s already well past the optimal age for awakening cultivation, isn’t she?”

“Miss the optimal window and the spirit root gets locked up by stagnant qi. Trying to cultivate after that is an uphill battle.”

Young people’s mouths, so thoroughly unfiltered.

With her sharp hearing, Lu Zhuxin caught every last whisper clearly.

She even heard someone say: a woman this old doesn’t deserve to enjoy the Chi family’s resources anymore.

Coming to awaken cultivation at this age serves no purpose other than wasting what the family has. Better to leave those resources for someone who actually needs them.

At that, Lu Zhuxin’s temper flared.

The hell did you just call an old woman?!

She slid her gaze sideways toward the one who had said it.

A round-faced, slightly pudgy boy. He bore a faint resemblance to Chi Zhong.

So it was you sneaking around in the crowd and stirring everyone up against me.

I’m remembering you.

You little fat brat.

When the fox comes back, it’s either to repay a kindness or to repay a debt.

Chi Xiyan had also heard the youths’ remarks. Her brows drew together.

Chi Muxue was her younger sister. Bringing Muxue to the school to cultivate had been approved by the family head as well.

She had not expected to run into something like this here.

Children spoke without thinking, and their words were the most blunt of all. But the most blunt words were also the sharpest blades.

Regardless of anything else, Chi Muxue was the Chi family’s direct second young lady. Since when did branch family disciples get to pass judgment?

Chi Xiyan stopped walking and turned, ready to say something.

But someone was faster than her.

“Spirit roots are indeed an important measure of a cultivator’s innate talent.”

“However, judging a person’s entire future solely by their spirit root is a rather rash conclusion to draw.”

“In the history of the sword sects, there have been a handful of great masters who showed no spirit root at their awakening, yet through a fortunate opportunity arrived at sudden enlightenment and achieved the Great Dao.”

“Moreover, the Great Dao has three thousand paths, and cultivating qi to ascend to immortality is not the only one.”

“Martial cultivators temper their bodies through a thousand trials and ten thousand refinements, and they too can reach immortality.”

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The speaker was a white-robed young man, his presence deep and measured. His few unhurried words brought the chaotic scene to a stillness.

“It’s the Nanhe Song Clan’s prodigy, Young Sect Master Song Shixuan of Lingxiao Sword Sect!”

A wave of startled cries broke out among the crowd of young disciples.

“Young Master Song has been staying at the residence these past few days. No one expected him to come to the school.”

“Young Master Song!”

The boy who moments ago had been handed what felt like a death sentence by the test results now stared at Song Shixuan with tear-filled eyes.

“Thank you for the wake-up call! You’re right, there’s more than one path to immortality. If qi cultivation doesn’t work out, I can still pursue martial cultivation!”

Song Shixuan smiled in return.

Amid the crowd pressing around him, he walked unhurriedly toward the platform.

Lu Zhuxin watched with some amusement.

Truly worthy of being Lingxiao Sword Sect’s Young Sect Master. This was clearly the Chi family’s school, yet Song Shixuan’s presence here was no less commanding than that of the Chi family’s eldest young lady.

Lu Zhuxin quietly glanced at Chi Xiyan beside her.

Sure enough, she caught a flicker of cold light in her eyes, gone in an instant.

But Chi Xiyan concealed it well. That chill was quickly buried back beneath the surface.

Chi Xiyan’s face wore a natural, composed smile as she gave Song Shixuan a slight nod. “Young Master Song.”

“Miss Xiyan.” Song Shixuan walked over at a leisurely pace. “Getting to see you even once is quite the ordeal.”

“Young Master Song has business with me?”

“Indeed. I wished to discuss our engagement with Miss Xiyan.”

“Young Master Song, I need to take my sister for the spirit root test first. Can we discuss the betrothal after?”

Song Shixuan’s expression remained unchanged. He smiled. “Of course.”

Beside them, Lu Zhuxin rolled her eyes.

So he came to push for the wedding.

Is this Song Shixuan himself? Persistent to a fault.

“Little Xue,” Chi Xiyan turned to look at Lu Zhuxin.

“I’m here, Sister!” Lu Zhuxin stepped forward.

“Eldest young lady. Second young lady.” The elder overseeing the test gave both of them a respectful bow.

“Eldest young lady, the testing platform is ready. We can begin whenever you’d like.”

“Then let’s begin.”

Under Chi Xiyan’s nod, Lu Zhuxin walked slowly forward.

After the earlier commotion, the young disciples’ chatter about Lu Zhuxin had died down considerably.

Still, everyone was curious. What result would this girl, testing at seventeen or eighteen years old, produce on the platform?

Lu Zhuxin stepped up to the platform and drew in a slow breath.

She was wondering whether she should make a grand entrance like the protagonist of a power-fantasy novel, or play the fool and hide her true strength like the underdog in a comeback story.

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Then again, that question was probably pointless.

Whichever result came out, the priority was making sure her identity didn’t show a crack.

With that settled in her mind, Lu Zhuxin pressed her hand onto the testing stone platform before her.

Under the curious gazes of everyone present, she closed her eyes.

She suppressed her cultivation, letting the spiritual energy within her go completely still and silent.

From the stone platform, a strange force surged out, sweeping through her entire body from limb to core before converging toward her dantian’s purple mansion.

Lu Zhuxin’s brows drew together slightly. She guided the energy within herself, pressing the nine-tailed demon power back into the depths of her dantian’s purple mansion without letting a single thread leak out.

That force seemed unable to make sense of Lu Zhuxin’s sealed dantian and began circling restlessly inside her.

After a moment, an aged voice traveled from within the testing stone platform directly into Lu Zhuxin’s consciousness. “Strange… what kind of constitution is this?”

Lu Zhuxin’s mind instantly filled with question marks.

This thing has a person manually evaluating it?

While Lu Zhuxin was still puzzling over this, the strange force began gathering just outside her dantian.

Then, without warning, everything shifted. The force condensed into a sharp spike and drove straight toward Lu Zhuxin’s purple mansion.

Lu Zhuxin startled, instinctively gathering her power to defend.

The dantian’s purple mansion was of the utmost importance to any cultivator, and for a fox demon, it was where the demon core resided. If it was damaged, her cultivation would scatter entirely.

Not only that, if demon qi leaked out, her identity as a fox demon would be impossible to conceal.

But just at that moment, an extreme cold surged from Lu Zhuxin’s neck.

It was the sword cultivator’s mark that Qu Qingtang had left inside her.

Catching Lu Zhuxin completely off guard, that wave of glacial sword intent arrived in an instant and drove away the testing platform’s probing force entirely.

Lu Zhuxin stood frozen.

From within the testing stone platform, the aged voice came again. “Ah, I see… so it is… the power of a Supreme Sacred Body…”

At the same moment, the testing stone platform before Lu Zhuxin suddenly erupted with a blazing radiance.

The elder responsible for the spirit root assessment stared, eyes wide.

“The Innate Supreme Sword Dao Sacred Body!”

“This… this… how is this possible?!”

Hearing the elder’s cry, those gathered exchanged bewildered looks. “What is the Innate Supreme Sword Dao Sacred Body?”

Chi Xiyan’s face also carried shock. She had already prepared herself for the possibility that her younger sister’s spirit root had been eroded and degraded to common grade by stagnant qi, and yet things had turned out like this.

Amid the crowd’s confusion, Song Shixuan pressed down his own astonishment and spoke slowly. “The Innate Supreme Sword Dao Sacred Body… in Lingxiao Sword Sect’s records, it has only appeared twice.”

“The first instance was the founding ancestor of Lingxiao Sword Sect, ten thousand years ago…”

“The second instance was Lingxiao Sword Sect’s Venerable Qingzhi…”

“Every time it appears, it heralds the birth of a candidate for Sword Venerable. And so this sacred body is also known as the Sword Venerable Reincarnate.”

As he said this, Song Shixuan looked at Lu Zhuxin, his gaze layered with complicated feeling.

Sword Venerable Reincarnate?

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Lu Zhuxin’s eyes went round.

This is bad. I’ve become a stand-in.

She was a fox demon. An Eighth Realm fox demon. Even if she truly became a Supreme, there was no way she would become the Supreme of a sword sect.

Qu Qingtang! You set me up!

Lu Zhuxin raged silently.

Chi Xiyan looked at Lu Zhuxin, her expression shifting through several things at once.

Shock. Hesitation. A trace of panic and worry.

Finally, she gathered all of those feelings and put them away. Her expression settled back into something grave and solemn.

As if she had made up her mind about something.

“Elder, pass the word down. What happened today is classified. Not a single person is to breathe a word of this.”

Her voice carried the full weight of a Fourth Realm sword cultivator’s cultivation as it spread across the entire grounds.

The whole plaza fell into complete silence.

Everyone could feel the cold killing intent woven into Chi Xiyan’s words.

Chi Xiyan took a slow breath and turned to Song Shixuan. “Young Master Song, I ask that you please keep today’s matter to yourself.”

“Consider it a request from your intended.”

“As for the wedding date, I will discuss it with you shortly.”

Song Shixuan’s eyes flickered with surprise. “Miss Xiyan, does this mean you’re agreeing to move the date forward?”

“Yes,” Chi Xiyan said gravely. “In a few days, the Chi family will invite guests and hold an engagement banquet to announce this happy occasion to the world.”

Seeing the gravity in Chi Xiyan’s eyes, Song Shixuan gave a slight nod. “I understand. Miss Xiyan, I will not let this matter leak.”

Chi Xiyan exhaled quietly. “Thank you for your understanding, Young Master Song.”

Standing to the side, Lu Zhuxin heard Chi Xiyan’s words and her brow knotted at once.

This is bad.

This is really bad.

Qu Qingtang, you’ve done me no small amount of harm.

Judging from Chi Xiyan’s reaction, she had clearly been weighing the matter of the Song family marriage for some time already. She just hadn’t made up her mind, kept hesitating, and so it had dragged on and on.

But now, the situation was different.

Up until now, Chi Xiyan had never once seen Lu Zhuxin as a threat. An ignorant girl from a farming village could not possibly shake her standing.

But if Lu Zhuxin was a candidate for Sword Venerable, everything changed entirely.

Lu Zhuxin wasn’t sure exactly what Chi Xiyan had worked through in her head just now.

But for Chi Xiyan to agree so hastily to moving the wedding date forward, it absolutely had something to do with that wretched Sacred Body.

Lu Zhuxin felt a prickling crawl across her scalp.

Had she known this would happen, she would never have agreed to come along for this spirit root test.

How good would it have been to just nestle beside the richest girl in the city and spend her days as a beautiful, freeloading waste?